An eight-story office tower along Chagrin Boulevard in Beachwood is on track to become one of the city's biggest apartment conversions yet, with developer Wangard Partners planning nearly 200 units across two former office buildings at Commerce Park. The centerpiece is Commerce Park Building Four, which will be reclad and reborn as a 147-unit luxury development called The Icon.
A New Skin for an Old Office Tower
A New Skin for an Old Office Tower
The building's exterior, or outer “skin,” is slated for a full makeover, with upgrades expected to include balconies and sliding glass doors, the outlet reported. Improvements are also planned for the 365-space underground garage that serves both Commerce Park Buildings Four and Five, giving residents covered parking tied directly into the renovated structure.
A Restaurant Idea Comes and Goes
Early plans for the ground floor envisioned a sit-down restaurant alongside co-working space, an exercise area and other amenities meant to complement the apartments above, per cleveland.com's 2024 report. But those retail ambitions have since shifted. Wangard consultant James Heller told the outlet in September 2025 that the first-floor retail component had been eliminated from the proposal altogether, even as the broader residential plan moved forward.
What has stayed in the plan, and expanded, is a lineup of resident amenities. The development is set to include an outdoor swimming pool, an exercise facility, a dog park, pickleball courts and underground parking, according to cleveland.com's more recent coverage. Beachwood City Council also approved a variance for a property at 23250 Chagrin Boulevard, letting studio and one-bedroom layouts make up 83 percent of its apartments.
Commerce Park V Still Finding Its Shape
Next door, a companion project known as Commerce Park V is expected to add another 58 to 60 apartments, according to the Cleveland Jewish News. That building's fate remains less settled than its neighbor's: it will either undergo a complete renovation or be demolished and rebuilt, but only after an architect analyzes the structure, the paper reported. Combined, the two buildings would bring the overall project to roughly 200 apartments, with dozens of them marketed as luxury units.
Wangard Partners bought both Commerce Park IV and V in March 2021 for $5.3 million, according to neo-trans.blog. Cost estimates for the conversion have varied in reporting over the years: cleveland.com's 2024 coverage cited a figure of more than $60 million for converting Building Four into the mixed-use Icon development, while the Cleveland Jewish News had earlier reported a combined $70 million price tag for both Commerce IV and Commerce V. Neither figure has been confirmed as final.
Why Beachwood Is Betting on Apartments
The conversion plan arrives amid steady demand for housing near Beachwood's employment base. University Hospitals facilities within a 10-mile radius of the city could be hiring up to 625 people based on current job postings, cleveland.com reported, underscoring the kind of nearby workforce developers hope will fill new units. The push also follows years of rent growth in the region; neo-trans.blog reported that Greater Cleveland rents climbed 11 percent in the first three months of 2022 compared with the same period the year before, as demand outstripped supply.
Beachwood has seen this kind of transformation before. The Vue, a 348-unit apartment building that replaced three demolished office structures, opened in 2015 and leased up quickly at top-of-market rents, according to the same neo-trans.blog report. A few miles away, Shaker Heights' Van Aken District had two towers under construction in January 2024, scheduled to open in late summer and expected to host 227 dwelling units, per cleveland.com. Those projects offer a regional backdrop for Wangard's bet that Beachwood's aging office stock can find new life as apartments.
